Famous Americans of Recent Times eBook

It is a question with political economists, whether,
upon the whole, such endowments as this are a good
or an evil to a community. There is now a considerable
party in England, among whom are several clergymen
of the Established Church, who think it would be better
for England if every endowment were swept away, and
thus to each succeeding generation were restored the
privilege of supporting all its poor, caring for all
its sick, and educating all its young. Dr. Chalmers
appears to have been inclined to an opinion like this.
It will be long, however, before this question becomes
vital in America. Girard College must continue
for generations to weigh heavily on Philadelphia,
or to lighten its burdens. The conduct of those
who have charge of it in its infancy will go far to
determine whether it shall be an argument for or against
the utility of endowments. Meanwhile, we advise
gentlemen who have millions to leave behind them not
to impose difficult conditions upon the future, which
the future may be unable or unwilling to fulfil; but
either to bestow their wealth for some object that
can be immediately and easily accomplished, or else
imitate the conduct of that respectable and public-spirited
man who left five pounds towards the discharge of
his country’s debt.

[Footnote 1: The facts which follow I received
from the lips and from the papers of this revered
man, now no more.—­J.P.]

[Footnote 2: Mr. Duane.]

JAMES GORDON BENNETT AND THE NEW YORK HERALD

A few years ago it seemed probable that the people
of the United States would be supplied with news chiefly
through the agency of newspapers published in the
city of New York. We were threatened with a paper
despotism similar to that formerly exercised in Great
Britain by the London Times; since, when one city
furnishes a country with newspapers, one newspaper
is sure, at length, to gain such a predominance over
others that its proprietor, if he is equal to his
position, wields a power greater than ought to be intrusted
to an individual. There have been periods when
the director of the London Times appeared to be as
truly the monarch of Great Britain as Henry VIII.
once was, or as William Pitt during the Seven Years’
War. It was, we believe, the opinion of the late
Mr. Cobden, which Mr. Kinglake confirms, that the
editor of the London Times could have prevented the
Crimean War. Certainly he conducted it. Demosthenes
did not more truly direct the resources of Athens
against Philip, than did this invisible and anonymous
being those of the British Empire against Russia.
The first John Walter, who was to journalism what James
Watt was to the steam-engine, had given this man daily
access to the ear of England; and to that ear he addressed,
not the effusions of his own mind, but the whole purchasable
eloquence of his country. He had relays of Demosthenes.
The man controlling such a press, and fit to control